In Chapter 6, Epstein introduces an important concept known as the conditional claim. A conditional claim is a claim stating that if you had or did something , then your actions will result in a consequence. Basically, it’s the if and then rule that you may have used in your everyday life before. : If A, then B. As you can see, a conditional claim contains both an antecedent and a consequent. In the if-then rule, the A is the antecedent and the B is the consequent resulting from the antecedent. A very good example of this would be:
“If she had quitted smoking a while ago, then she would still be alive today.”
In the example above, the antecedent is “If she had quitted smoking a while ago” and the consequent is “then she would still be alive today.” The statement is very true because if she had quitted smoking earlier, then she wouldn’t have died from cancer and would still be living a longer life.
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Your explanation of conditional claims is very detailed. It makes more sense to me then reading the book. :) Although you had use the A and B example, your explanation of the condition claim is relatively very short and clear. I love your example too! It is a great example. And you are right, quitting smoking would lessen the probability of the death. But, one might argue that, even she does not die from cancer that might be due to smoking, she could have died from something else. Just being the devils advocate, but besides that, your example is great.
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